His Bride to be
by scorpion22
Summary: Caliban wanted a bride and when Victor starts to build her for him, he thinks he knows who and what he wants, but fate has other plans for him. He just doesn't know it. Can he realize it before its took late? M for later chapters.
1. Chapter 1

True love is not a strong, fiery, impetuous passion. It is, on the contrary, an element calm and deep. It looks beyond mere externals, and is attracted by qualities alone. It is wise and discriminating, and its devotion is real and abiding-Ellen G. White.

Chapter 1

The creature was demanding a bride, a woman to have for his very own, and Victor could hold him at bay no more.

"I will not create another" Victor thought with conviction when the creature first broached his demand his mind as much as his body refusing until suddenly his creation stood before him actually looking human with real tears, real pain in his eyes. He was a lost creature and for once, despite all he'd done, Victor found himself feeling sympathy for him. On his knees, his creation spoke to him, leveled with him letting him see the pain he had lived with since Victor had left him upon his birth by so cowardly running away. His words came more elegant then even Victor himself could have spoken and they belayed a depth of emotion that was altogether human. It made Victor realize so many things even as he was raising his gun to shoot him down. That monster he may be, his creation was a man, human in almost every way. It made him see him less as the monster, the creature, but lowering his weapon Victor suddenly found he couldn't shoot.

"Victor, please I need you" Ethan's voice broke the silence that braced between them then and in that moment, it was like fate, like god leading him in his task.

His mind was already made up to make him his bride, although he didn't tell his creature that as he left with Ethan, but when he saw that dying woman suddenly Victor knew. It was like god was leading him and when she said she didn't know what lay on the other side of the door, then he was sure. She was the one, his creature's bride, and after her breathing stopped, Victor knew his journey of creation was beginning. When he returned, Victor found his creature just as he left him.

"I'll do it—I'll make her for you" whispered Victor expecting some sort of gratitude or any response at all but receiving none. He repeated himself thinking maybe he didn't hear him, but again, the creature sat like stone not responding, and as Victor waited for a reaction he felt the chill of death lingering from where he had been. He felt it lingering on the body that lay just in the next room and its familiarity stalled him as he eyed his creature expectantly.

"I have found you a bride" Victor said it one last time his frustration growing as the creature remained unresponsive and that final time, those final words is what made him move towards him not realizing he was moving until suddenly he loomed over the form on the floor. When he stood over him only then did the creature look up.

"I will make you a bride—all I ask is patience and time—and in return I promise that she will be beautiful just as you asked" Victor felt his words as they left his mouth, but part of him still couldn't believe them. He had thought he would never be here again. That after this very creature had killed his last one that he would never do something so unholy again, but now suddenly he was. Only this time, it didn't seem so unholy, but predestined by some mythical god. As those thoughts passed over him, the creature stared still not saying a thing his golden eyes saying more then his words could. They held a mixture of emotions that clutched at Victor in an almost inhuman way, disbelief heavy there among those emotions as he stared perplexed yet afraid that he was playing some cruel joke on him. They stood in silence until Victor found he could stand it no more his reasons for doing this chanting in his mind as a continuous reminder. For as he looked down on his creation, Victor was reminded that he was not just doing this for him; he was also doing this for her.

Ms. Croft, she didn't deserve the life that she had lived or the way that she had died. Despite her profession, Victor knew that her soul had been pure, and that she deserved another chance. It was a chance he wanted to give her even if it would be with the man before him. She had died before it was truly her time and now he would give her a second chance; he would make her live again as only he could. As the thought passed, Victor remembered her last moments, all the blood flashing through his mind. He felt his heart throb at the memory. She hadn't deserved such a fate, to die in such a way, and Victor had another thought. Maybe this was his destiny, to right the wrongs nature committed every day, for the way Ms. Croft had died couldn't possibly be right, not in his or anyone's eyes. That was why Victor hoped so desperately to set things right with her. It was as much for her as for him and as his last image of her came upon him, only then did he dare break the silence.

"Would you like to see her?" whispered Victor knowing the answer as the creature climbed to his feel almost immediately. As Victor guided his creature the short way to the body, he could feel that same somber feeling; it had followed her body all the way to his workshop.

"Here she is" whispered Victor a sadness filling him as they came upon her cold form sheet covered still and glancing at his creature, Victor watched as he seemed to observe her, to take her in his anxiety building as he waited for his response once again. Would she be what he wanted? When he could endure the silence no more Victor moved forward feeling as his creature's eyes returned to him. Pausing to stare at the woman he had known beneath that sheet, Victor gently lifted it as the creature came to his side and revealing her face he looked at him when a gasp left his lips. The creature seemed to be in awe and looking at her, Victor couldn't help, but think that he should be. She was still beautiful even in death.

"She's beautiful" came his voice startling Victor from his revelry his hand touching the place over his heart as his face wore a look of utter devotion already. It was then that Victor removed the sheet completely watching as he circled her, taking every inch of her in before letting his eyes turn to him.

"When will you begin?" whispered the creature receiving the only answer Victor could give when without a response, Victor picked up a blade beginning right then.

The first incision he made somehow felt wrong as dark blood started to pool on the table beneath her. Victor didn't let it bother him for long though choosing instead to let it skip over him feeling the creature as he loomed over him with every move he made, one last thought penetrating his mind. When did he become so accustomed, so freely willing to cut a lost soul to pieces? Victor didn't give himself an answer as he continued to cut into her his work like second nature to him now. He found he knew just what to do, he didn't have to think about it though it had been a bit since he had practiced his craft. It all came back to him, he didn't have to think about a single movement, but instead his hands seemed to move of their own accord. As they did the creature was always watching over him and Victor barely noticed as he became engrossed in his craft again part of him feeling a type of ease as he worked at what he had once reveled in. Victor didn't pay attention to anything as he worked. He was so engrossed in what he was doing that soon the darkness of her blood and her unworking organs stopped bothering him as he worked long into the night then into the next. It wasn't until sleep demanded itself upon him that Victor felt his own strength lagging. He hadn't worked like this in such a long time. Finally, with a sigh of exhaustion on his lips, Victor found himself collapsing into a chair, the creature still staring at her prone body not moving. He was for the third time in his life covered in blood and as that processed in his mind, Victor looked up to find the creature standing over him.

"I must leave you now, creator. Tomorrow, I must go in search of work in this merciless city" whispered the creature his voice hard emotionless once more reminding him once more what he was despite the human qualities he had just witnessed in him.

"Where will you go?" the question left his lips before Victor had truly registered them. They seemed to surprise the creature as much as himself because suddenly the creature turned staring at him his eyes searching for something unknown. Silence fell and turning away again, he thought he would simply leave, but something seemed to be holding him back. Why, he questioned, did Frankenstein suddenly seem to care what happened to him? The creature didn't voice that question, but instead let it play around in his brain without an answer. As the creature turned to face him again, Victor was suddenly on his feet approaching him almost cautiously. Neither of them knew what to expect from the other as this happened until Victor was mere feet away his eyes staring intently at him.

"Why do you suddenly care what happens to me? I've been sleeping in alleyways and among the garbage since you created me—why do you care if I do so now?" exclaimed the creature an anger seemed to radiate off him then and Victor found he himself didn't have an answer for those questions. He only knew that suddenly he did, and he couldn't explain himself, he could only redeem himself his own selfish reason still guiding him though he was loath to admit it.

"You are my responsibility, besides, if I do this for you how do I know you will leave me be then?" said Victor not expecting the creature to move towards him then.

"You and I will never be truly parted. After all, what is Dr. Frankenstein without his creature?" said the creature his voice holding something that he couldn't quite place.

"How true" the thought responded to his words immediately even as Victor merely stared at the creature with no response in that moment.

"Nonetheless, I want you somewhere where I can keep an eye on you—come with me" said Victor moving to change then suddenly they were out the door his steps unsure as they traveled in the dead of night.

"Where are you taking me?" exclaimed the creature his steps a hint behind his.

"To someone who will understand all of this…who won't question it…she's faced darkness before and survived" exclaimed Victor smiling as he described Ms. Ives in the only way he could part of him thinking that it didn't do her justice. They moved through the snow then the cold seeming to bother neither of them. The creature listened to the words he said not understanding how such a person could exist even as he followed him still. Darkness was meant to eat people up and yet, his creator said that this person had faced it, and survived. In that moment, the creature followed, if only just to meet such a person. When they reached her home, Victor paused as he stood outside of it. For once, it radiated a peace that he couldn't remember seeing before, and he was glad for it. If anyone deserved it, it was her, and with that thought he moved forward once more a carriage pulling up as they did. A female figure encased in green stepped out, Vanessa Ives, looking as elegant as he had ever seen her.

"Ms. Ives?" Victor's voice reached out to her through the twilight of the falling snow his trust in her leading him forward. Slowly, her eyes fell on them as her body lingered on the stoop, and meeting his gaze, Vanessa offered him a smile before her eyes fell on the man a few paces behind him. Her curious eyes fell on him and Caliban couldn't help thinking that no one had ever looked at him like that even as she was offering him a smile.

"She's beautiful" that was Caliban's first thought when he first beheld Vanessa Ives and he was not just thinking of her true beauty, but her soul, even it seemed to be beautiful as she gazed upon him without disgust her smile radiating with her kindness.

"How could such a woman survive the darkness as Frankenstein spoke of?" that entered his mind next as her eyes appraised him taking him in as he did her his heart already telling him that she was different from the cruel world around them her smile and carefree nature as she stood there, the snow falling into her hair telling him that more then anything else as they stood in an unending silence.

"Doctor—who is this you bring with you?" came Vanessa's voice finally as Victor approached her while Caliban remained unmoving. Victor took her hand when she offered it then gracing it with a kiss and looking into her eyes, Vanessa saw a desperation there that she couldn't quite place before her eyes rose to the man behind him standing still as stone in the snow. There was something about him that intrigued her.

"I must speak with you. This man—he is my creation…I built him…brought him to life after he was already dead" the words were a shouted whisper as Victor spoke drawing her eyes back to his immediately.

Her eyes moved between them, back and forth, as if trying to see if he was joking, but soon she realized he was not. That was when her eyes settled on Caliban the curiosity still in her eyes. Vanessa had seen many things, but this was not one of them. For Caliban, her response only seemed to intrigue him, for she was not running or screaming in fright. This woman was still looking at him without disgust in her eyes those same eyes even daring to pierce his own in a way never done before. She wasn't afraid of him and that he found, was a balm to his fractured soul. He saw curiosity there and a kindness different from any he had known and then she smiled at him.

"Let's get out of this cold—come inside…both of you" whispered Vanessa finally turning her back on them. The doors opened before she could touch the door knob and a black man servant quickly took their coats. Nothing was said until it was just the three of them again and as everything seemed to move forward so fast, Caliban found himself apprehensive to take another step. Caliban then found himself in one of the most beautiful homes he had ever come upon.

"Come sit" called Vanessa suddenly distracting him from his thoughts his eyes lingering on her.

Caliban found that they were both sitting now, waiting for him. Victor sat in a cozy wing backed chair by the fire while Vanessa sat on the couch her eyes on him as she patted the spot next to her. She beckoned to him to come sit with her, but he remained at the door almost afraid to move or somehow displease this woman who seemed to see him already in a way the world until then had refused to. Silence remained as their eyes met her hand beckoning him still to come closer. After a moment, Caliban found himself sitting by her side as Victor told his story, their story, but the words seemed to flow over them. Vanessa Ives stared perplexed with curiosity at him the entire time never even giving Victor a glance until his story had ended. Caliban found himself staring back always waiting for her to suddenly look at him the way the world always did, but she never did. This lady seemed not to see him the way the world did, but as human. She looked at him like a man, a human man, and that is what was building a growing appreciation for her as they gazed upon one another still. That was the first thing that drew him to her even before he knew he was being drawn.

After Victor finished his tale even then Vanessa's eyes didn't stray even as Victor was asking her what he had come to ask.

"I need to know what he does—where he is—would you be so kind as to let him stay here with you?" whispered Victor both their eyes falling on him before Caliban found his returning to her. She was already saying yes, her eyes returning to him with a smile.

"I won't be an imposition" said Caliban before she stopped him.

"You never could be. I'm glad for the company, sir. Tell me though, what am I to call you, surely your name isn't the creature?" said Vanessa shocking him when she placed her hand atop his.

Caliban didn't answer her at first, he had never told anyone the name Vincent had given him, to others he was always John Clair, but with her suddenly he didn't want to be. It was the name he preferred, but looking at her, he found an honesty in her eyes that made him want to place his hand over his heart like he had done before.

"Caliban—a friend once gave me that name" said Caliban the words stumbling from his lips.

"I leave him with you then" said Victor his desperation in his voice as he left with no further explanation. They remained sitting there a moment until rising, Caliban found himself doing the same. Vanessa offered him her hand and staring at it, he found himself longing to take it.

Looking into her eyes, Caliban couldn't remember being drawn to anyone the way he was her. "Come, I'll show you to your room" said Vanessa moving forward catching him off guard as she took his hand to lead him. Caliban found himself overcome almost overwhelmed as he followed her his thoughts flitting through his brain. He had never had a room of his own before—and here this woman, who seemed to possess more kindness then existed in London, was giving him one. Vanessa Ives intrigued him from the moment he laid eyes on her.

She was an anomaly compared to everything else he had known. Looking at her, he found her covered in darkness, black draped over her shoulders, but there was something else too. There was a beauty about her that he could somehow tell she couldn't see herself and Caliban found himself glad to have met her as she faced him outside his new bedroom door.

"If you need anything don't hesitate to ask…I'm just down the hall" said Vanessa smiling a smile that he found he could not deny her in returning it.

"Thank you, Ms. Ives" whispered Caliban feeling as her hand slipped from his making him sad.

"Vanessa—no need for formalities here, Caliban" whispered Vanessa stepping around him his eyes on her back as she moved down the hallway into her own room. As she did, he remembered the sound of his name on her lips. She had made it sound beautiful giving him yet another reason for him to prefer it to any other name he might be given. That night, Caliban lay in a bed the likes of which he'd never experienced before. But despite that, he did not sleep.

He didn't need it the way others did and so instead he looked up to the perfectly white ceiling his thoughts on his bride to be. She remained on his thoughts until just before dawn when his body finally demanded sleep where his mind let him picture the moment when he would live, come alive as he had. He felt the electricity run through his body even in his dream state as his creator and himself screamed for her to live. And then she did. As silence and pouring rain filled their senses, they waited for her to rise, a masterpiece, and she did. First, her fingers then the rest of her until turning to face them, Caliban gasped. The woman that rose to life was not the bride he had helped place in the water to await creation. His bride, the woman that rose before them was none other then Vanessa Ives.


	2. A Spark of Fingertips

Chapter 2

"Rare as is true love, true friendship is rarer"- Jean de LaFontaine

When Caliban opened his eyes the first morning, he awoke beneath Vanessa Ives' roof, he didn't know where he was at first until suddenly it all came back to him. He felt the electricity as it zoomed through the room, the white gold spark holding an eerie chill. He saw it, the gentle touch of fingertips as they emerged from the water, and then her. In his dream, Vanessa Ives, the woman he'd just met rose from the water to look down at him as his bride. The vision haunted him even as it thrilled him. Caliban didn't know why, but he longed for it to be true even though he had known the woman less then half a day. The worst part was that he wasn't sure why. He couldn't, wouldn't deny that she was beautiful. One of the most, if not thee, most beautiful, enchanting women he had ever set eyes on, but so was the woman that his creator had found. Caliban suspected it was because of the kindness this woman had shown him though she had only known him a short time. He suspected it was because of the darkness that seemed to rest on her shoulders so easily as if it belonged there. All he did know for sure was that she was the most enticing, tender woman who had ever crossed his path. It was because of that that he didn't want to forget his vision from the night before. Rising from the water, surrounded by electricity; his bride. He had to keep reminding himself though that she was not. She was just a kind woman who his creator had convinced to let him into her home.

Caliban liked to think of her as an enigma. Something rare and exquisite in a world that hated beings such as that. When Ms. Ives looked at him, she didn't look at him like she was looking at a monster, but she looked at him as if he was a man just like anyone else. She looked as if she understood him and somehow, he thought she did. Because together they were shunned from the world, a curiosity, but together they could be simply human. Caliban truly believed that as he woke that morning in the first feather bed, he had ever slept in. He laid there picturing her as she arose from the water. He remembered her face, how she had smiled at him in her wane yet wickedly sinister way, her eyes beckoning him to come to her. That image stayed with him as he dressed that day. It stayed as he left the room in which he had slept and didn't leave even as he saw the face of the real woman.

"Come with me" whispered Mr. Poole when he came upon him at the bottom of the stairs, his voice low as if he was leading him to some sort of sanctuary. When Mr. Poole escorted him to the dining room, Caliban was taken aback when he saw her sitting there. She was the picture of elegance, not a hair out of place, her dress as black as the darkness that seemed to cling to her.

Caliban was taken aback when he first saw her. So, few people smiled at him the way she did in that moment. It was like she had been waiting for him. Like he was the most beautiful sight she had ever seen and even as he knew it wasn't true, he liked the thought anyway. When she saw him, Vanessa Ives smiled, and approaching her, Caliban could still picture her as his bride to be. He knew it wouldn't be true, but the thought stayed with him nonetheless especially the longer that smile stayed on her face. That smile was like a hand to his heart. A gentle stroke to the heart that was unfamiliar when compared to the cruel stabbings his heart had been subjected to since the moment he returned to existence. It wasn't forced or done simply as a gesture. Caliban knew it was real, with real feeling, and sincere kindness. He clung to it as if it were a ray of delicate sunshine set to dissolve any minute. The truth was, Caliban came to savior it the way he once savored the sweet oranges they sold at the theatre.

"Come, join me for breakfast" exclaimed Vanessa, looking at him with that smile in her eyes now. Raising a hand, she beckoned to him, letting the smile spread more. The words made him feel warm inside as he approached her before suddenly, he stopped his eyes finding they just wanted to look at her. To take her in. Her, a type of physical miracle that enticed him as he gazed upon her fondly. At first, he didn't move. When he did, the trance was broken all to quickly, and he was moving. His feet were moving on their own to sit next to her and his hands yearned to touch her. To reach out a tender hand to cup her cheek or clasp her hand. He didn't dare act upon it though as he got all the closer to her.

"Thank you, Ms. Ives" Caliban said it as if he was her humble servant willing to worship her at her will, as he sat down next to her at the table, as he did there was quivering within him especially when their eyes met in a clash of two dark eclipses.

"I trust you were comfortable and that everything was to your liking?" whispered Vanessa as Mr. Poole entered the room again. He set a plate down in front of him and left without a word.

"Everything was lovely, thank you" whispered Caliban turning his eyes away from hers, feeling suddenly strange at the kindness she showed him even when speaking to him. As he said it, she touched his hand, making his head jerk until he was looking into her eyes as a spark of electricity like he remembered from his dreams seemed to move between them.

He didn't need to ask her if she'd felt it. Caliban could see the answer in her eyes by the mere way they shined. There was a flicker of that electricity in her eyes. Like a shining streak of silver that flashed there when the two met, like an aftershock. Neither said anything about it though, Vanessa only continued to stare at him, her smile still as genuine, until suddenly she looked away too soon. She only looked at him still with that gentle smile gracing her lips after a moment.

"I'm glad everything was to your liking. I'd like you to consider yourself at home here…if there should be anything you need simply ask" said Vanessa her voice a low tenor that he strained to hear even as it boomed like firecrackers in his ears.

"You have my thanks, Ms. Ives…you don't know what your kindness means to me. The world has never been kind…I'm unaccustomed to such" whispered Caliban looking at her even as he avoided her eyes especially when she grasped his arm as if in silent demand that he look her in the eye.

"You should get used to such treatment, for as long as your stay here lasts, for as long as you are my friend, I will see to it that the world treats you kindly" whispered Vanessa, they looked into each other's eyes again, and that spark was there once more.

This spark was different. Fleeting, with a low buzz like existence that shook him. This woman shook him as he looked at her in all her brilliance. He suddenly knew that he would never meet another like her, and Caliban found he didn't want to as he gazed at her with such reverence. She was extraordinary. He hoped she knew that as he looked on her some more. It stayed there until Ms. Ives drew her hand away. Everything was silent as they ate until they had finished, only then did Mr. Poole appear to clear everything away, then Ms. Ives was smiling at him once more.

"I assume, given your name that you are a fan of Shakespeare?" the way she said it made it seem as if she already knew the answer.

"Yes…a friend named me after one of his creations, I've preferred the name ever since. I enjoy anything I can read, really, the written word has always been my unjudging friend" whispered Caliban his words becoming warm like fresh baked scones. They contained a sudden vigor that seemed to radiate off him. They produced in him the first genuine smile Vanessa would ever see from him. As she saw it, Vanessa cherished that smile as much as the glow she saw in his eyes.

"Good, then my surprise should give you much joy. Come with me" exclaimed Vanessa sharing that brilliant smile with him. She touched his hand for the second time that day. It elicited that spark, somehow stronger than the time before, and this time she gasped as she felt it. Her mouth turned up in an O of astonishment that turned into a smile soon enough.

"Come quickly, I can't wait to show you" whispered Vanessa as they rose from the table, her hand seeking his to lead him the spark developing a steady rhythm in their veins. As he followed her, Caliban felt the slow beat of his heart increase. He savored that feeling as she led him a familiarity somehow in the movement. Because to walk by her side felt right. As if it was destined by the gods. It felt even more righteous to hold her hand in his. To cradle her fingers in a sign of pure solidarity. Caliban cherished that too as he walked by her side. When they came to stop in front of a closed oaken door, Vanessa turned to look up into his face, her smile somehow becoming more brilliant.

"I want you to feel at home here…I hope you will come and go as you please and that you will come to see me as your friend. As someone you can trust" whispered Vanessa as she opened the door revealing more books then he'd ever thought to read in his lifetime.

"This room has been sorely neglected as of late, but I know you'll give it the attention it deserves" exclaimed Vanessa upon entering the room, standing as if on bated breath, waiting for his reaction as she unveiled to him her homes library. She didn't say anything more. She simply watched him as he looked upon the room with a cool, anticipatory gaze. The look on his face held awe. It gave her pleasure to be able to put it on his face.

"Ms. Ives…I've never before seen so many books. I thank you, for making them available to me" exclaimed Caliban, turning to look at her. In that moment, he was once again taken aback by just how beautiful she was, especially when she smiled.

"It is my pleasure" whispered Vanessa, as she said it, he remembered his dream. He wished she was meant to be his bride in that moment.


	3. Snow Walking

Chapter 3

Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius and it's better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring—Marilyn Monroe

Vanessa felt almost relieved to have another soul roaming the halls of her home when Caliban came along. She couldn't explain it, but something inside her drew her to the man. More so then she had ever been drawn before. They seemed to understand each other without really having any sort of understanding at all. Vanessa sensed a kindred spirit in him that she had never found in another living soul. Maybe that was why she'd given him the library. To show him some kindness that the world had kept from him. To allow them to become closer somehow, or at least to get to know each other. At least, those were the reasons Vanessa told herself, when in all actuality, she had done it purely to see that look on his face. That look that signified pure bliss and when she'd given him access to books, she had seen it. It had lit him up and Vanessa had loved it more then anything else. She liked getting to know him and spending time with him. She just liked him. It had taken her quite by surprise at first but was getting better as she came to love his company. Vanessa had always been wrapped in darkness. She had never really understood it, but simply learned to contend with it. Yet, with Caliban, she could feel that darkness all around her just as she always did, but it was different now. Because he was here. He brought some sort of light to her life. A type of peace that Vanessa could rarely remember from days passed. She clung to it in those days, felt protected by it as she spent those first few days with him. And yet, she was always aware of the darkness as well. She could always feel it there and know that it could snatch her up at any moment. Vanessa never truly let her guard down even in those peaceful early days, she just enjoyed the contentment while it lasted. While always waiting for it to come to an end. Because she didn't expect the darkness to go away as easily as Caliban had ventured into her life. She knew that it wasn't like everyone wanted it to be. That a simple exorcism or lobotomy wouldn't take it away. It would always be with her, only now, she had learned to live with it. To embrace it without really doing so. Vanessa always had that at the back of her mind even at her calmest moment and she was always ready. For the darkness to come for her again because she knew it would never give up trying to claim her. And she knew it would get her someday. That day just wasn't today, it was waiting until she was vulnerable. Maybe that's why she didn't let herself be vulnerable. She was always waiting, cautious for when the darkness would come to strike. Because it would, just as it was always somewhere, watching her.

Always touching her, yet, as a cool gleam of fingers on skin, not the usual bruising grip that had always sought to strangle her. Vanessa didn't lie to herself when it came to the darkness. She knew that was why she clung to his company. Why she spent hours in silence with him. Not just because she enjoyed his company, but because he seemed to keep the darkness at bay. He made her feel like maybe if she let herself, she could put her guard down. Like maybe she could trust him to keep the darkness from her. To protect her from it. Something she knew she would never truly allow. Those weren't her only reasons though, the truth was, Caliban fascinated her. He was more then his face and his appearance. He was a man more human then anyone she had ever met. She wanted him to know that the more time she spent with him. He was by far the most interesting man she had ever met. Vanessa's mind was decidedly made up on that, it would stay that way, especially as their acquaintance grew. They had just finished dining together when he had moved down the hall to the library as Poole brought her cloak.

Caliban's voice rang out to her as she was fastening her cloak.

"Going out tonight, Ms. Ives?" said Caliban, his body shadowed by the darkness of the hallway.

"Yes, I do so enjoy a good walk in the night. You're going to the library again, I see, you have no idea how happy you're use of it makes me. I was letting it go neglected, I'm afraid" exclaimed Vanessa a joy in her eyes that Caliban found he reveled in as he watched her. Her voice was always so kind and tender as she spoke to him. Before he'd met her, Caliban had rarely heard such words, but now, he heard them everyday from her lips. Their eyes met as they spoke, lighting up the darkness, and Caliban felt something inside himself shiver. He knew it was because of her, but he chose not to dwell on it as he looked at her. He found he enjoyed looking at her. Caliban couldn't keep himself from smiling at her. She was a revelation. Something he had dreamed to find in another human being, but never found. In that moment, Caliban felt grateful to have met her as she returned his smile. Gently, he stepped into the light, and soon he found himself just close enough to touch her.

"Thank you for allowing it" said Caliban, receiving a nod as she pulled on her gloves as Poole opened the door.

It was as she was stepping out the door that Vanessa stopped short.

"Something wrong, Ms. Ives?" said Caliban, his eyes still on her, watching her as she turned back to face him, her body in the doorway as her eyes sought his.

"Would you care to join me?" exclaimed Vanessa suddenly, seeing as the words caught him off guard making her immediately expect him to answer with a no. She could see the hesitation on his face, but after a moment, it lifted. Vanessa almost wasn't expecting it when he began to walk towards her. She had been expecting him to walk away without ever answering, but instead, he walked closer until he was close enough to touch her. Vanessa didn't know what his answer would be until he gave it.

"I'd like that" whispered Caliban, barely having time to don his own coat before he was walking by her side in the snow.

"She's beautiful with all the snow around her" thought Caliban as they walked in silence, only the sound of the snow crunching beneath their feet as they moved. As the thought passed over him, Vanessa looked at him as if reading it from his very mind. She smiled at him, her eyes as always kind, and Caliban felt something inside him quiver. Caliban looked at her too. He found he liked looking at her as they walked. Not just because she was beautiful, but because of the look on her face. There was a peace when they were together that he enjoyed. Most people avoided looking at him, but not her. She was always looking at him, acting as if she enjoyed it, and that thought brought him such joy. It was the look he had always wanted from a woman, but never received. Maybe that was why he had jumped at the chance to join her on her walk tonight. Because he would take any chance to spend time with her.

"Thank you for joining me tonight. I've always enjoyed my walks, but until recently I seem to have forgotten them. You being with me makes them all the better" exclaimed Vanessa suddenly breaking the silence with her voice as soft as the very snow they walked in, meeting his gaze when she felt him watching her. In that moment, Vanessa could feel them, like the gentle touch of snow.

She enjoyed it as she met those eyes.

"I was tiring of being alone…your company means more then you know" said Vanessa in that moment her voice seeming only to get softer as they walked.

"It is you I should thank, Ms. Ives, for taking me in as you did. You have shown me more kindness then I've seen in my lifetime" said Caliban, his voice belaying the truth of his words, his head turning when she laughed, an enchanting sound like music from an orchestra making him focus only on her as they entered the more busier streets of London.

"I think its at both our pleasure" exclaimed Vanessa before another drunken male voice called out to them. Vanessa didn't let the drunken voices startle her, but Caliban's reactions worried her immediately. She could sense that his fragile soul was at stake now as she looked straight ahead. He was looking at the men as they directed words of sullen insolence at him, his eyes down in shame. He was letting them affect him. Each man was drunk, standing outside a pub, and while Caliban only distantly understood the words being directed at him, he knew what they meant all the same. He was waiting for shame to cross her face, to hear it in her voice, but that moment never came. Because she wasn't ashamed to be with him. She was proud.

"Hey darling, what you doing with an ugly face like that? Come over here and we'll teach you to walk beside a real man" said the voice, each new comment getting worse than the one before it. Vanessa still didn't give them the satisfaction of a response. She didn't look at them, but always straight ahead while always making sure Caliban stayed by her side. The more words that came flying at them, the more Caliban seemed to be affected, and Vanessa knew she must get him away from here. It pained her to see him hurt by these strangers though more so then it should have. She didn't try to understand it though, that could wait for later, for now, she just kept walking keeping him close at her side.

"Caliban don't listen to them, they're drunk, and being cruel because they can" whispered Vanessa feeling as he seemed to be shrinking away from her and she had already made up her mind that she wouldn't let that happen. So, she acted without thinking. Caliban was startled when she took his hand in one of her own. No one had ever done that before. Man or woman. She did though, in that moment, she took his hand, and she held it firmly in hers as she led him away from the men. She was an enigma to him in that moment because she always treated him better then the world thought he deserved. She treated him like a man when the rest of the world treated him as a monster. Caliban knew then that he loved her. He knew he could never tell her that, but he did all the same as they walked farther ahead until neither of them could hear the words the men let trail behind them.

"Don't listen to men like that, Caliban, they just want to have an affect on you. You must simply learn to not let them affect you. They are uncivilized, unhuman. You must strive to be better than them" exclaimed Vanessa then proving once more to be better than he deserved as she continued to walk with him by her side with her head held high. They walked in silence again with Caliban just staring ahead. Vanessa knew something was pained inside him. That those men had wounded him. She wanted to heal his wounds the longer they walked. She just didn't know how, maybe, that was why she just kept walking straight ahead trying to figure out what more she could say.

"Ignore them" said Vanessa sternly, her eyes hard as she looked ahead. Caliban had strayed into his own thoughts now though. He hardly heard her even as he was looking right at her. He had been ignoring it since Frankenstein had brought him back to life and the truth was, he was tired. He wanted just one person to show him kindness and while he had found that in Ms. Ives, he knew someday, even she would come to see for the burden that he was. Caliban found he feared that day as he looked at her, wanting to be able to call her his friend forever, but knowing someday even she would fade until she was just a memory. As if sensing his thoughts, Vanessa looked at him in that moment, and her eyes were sad now. They were far enough away now that they were all alone now. Caliban kept expecting her to suddenly wrench away from him, but she never did. She only looked at him with that eternal sadness her hand always firm as if held his. She seemed determined to never let him go.

Instead, he found himself sitting at a bench by her side, and when she finally spoke, she wasn't looking at him anymore.

"Beauty is not in the face, but in the soul, in the eyes and the heart" whispered Vanessa, looking at him as she finished speaking.

"I see your soul, Caliban, and it is beautiful" exclaimed Vanessa, surprising him when she moved his hair aside to touch his face. No one had ever tried such a thing before. When she did it, he wasn't sure how to react. When he leaned into her touch though, she brought both hands to touch his face, both staring intently at the other as the snow fell around them.


	4. Something Unexpected

Chapter 4

If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he had imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours—Henry David Thoreau

Caliban didn't fully realize it when her hands left his face. Neither did she, their eyes only stayed together in a sincere union that neither of them understood. They found themselves sitting on that bench with the snow falling and yet, neither of them noticed that either. They were always watching each other, wondering what the other was thinking, but neither having the words to ask. Neither of them could feel a thing. Only the feel of their skin, as they sat hand in hand, and even when it began to snow, there was nothing. The silent sound of the snow falling filled the air. The silent wind moving her hair to drift in the shadow of her face. Caliban wanted to touch her face as she had his own, but he didn't dare as he looked at her, always just looking even as he longed to touch. Vanessa could see that longing in his eyes. She mistook it for something else as she watched him too. Always watching him, embracing him in so many ways that world had denied him since the moment Victor had awakened him from gods rightful rest. It made Vanessa want to draw him closer into the circle of her arms and show him the compassion he deserved, but she couldn't find the movement as she watched him more.

"No ones ever made me feel this way before. You treat me like any other man…you make me feel like any other man" exclaimed Caliban, breaking the silence in the air. He made Vanessa look at him then, her eyes remorseful at his words, but also endearing. She liked the way his voice sounds as it moved through the chill in the air like a wisp of winter wind. It took her back to places she didn't understand.

The words made her smile as her eyes seemed to freeze on him.

"Caliban…always remember that you are a man just like any other. Your heart bleeds and feels emotions like those of any other man. You are capable of love and deserve love. You are a man, an intelligent man…and a beautiful man. A beautiful man with the most beautiful soul I have ever witnessed in all my days on this earth. No one else understands that because they are too weak minded to try" exclaimed Vanessa, her voice quick as a whip with an intense edge that held him as their eyes met almost refusing to look away. She could feel him watching her then, the hairs rising on her neck in response. The dream he had the first night in her home flashed before his eyes then, but it was more then a flash because he didn't just see it, he felt it. Not just the flash of lightning, but her face. Her body as it rose from the water after coming to life. He knew it would never be, but that didn't stop the image from repeating in his mind like the flashes of lightning that appeared in the sky. Hoe Ms. Ives had rose to the surface to be his bride, he wondered if it had been an omen meant to tell him something as he looked at her.

She was a revelation covered in black, her hair a marvel as white snowflakes made a home among her curls. It made him want her to be that woman that would rise from the water in a few short months. The one who would love him when no one else ever had. He could see Ms. Ives as that person, not just because she already showed such a deep tenderness towards him, but because he found himself giving her his heart. Because as he sat there, Caliban knew that this was what he wanted with his mate. A relationship just like the one he experienced now with Ms. Ives and sitting there, he found himself questioning if he could have that with the woman that Frankenstein would create. Would it be this way with her? Could they sit together on a bench someday, like this, and be at peace the way they were now? As he was thinking it, Vanessa was sitting with him still wondering what he was thinking as he stared so intently at her. It intrigued her as he watched her. Because his eyes belayed nothing. They gave no hint of the thoughts that held him so as they sat in the chill of the night. To Vanessa, she found it almost alluring, but also completely enticing as she looked into the dark pitch that were his eyes. He liked the way she didn't look away as he processed these thoughts. He liked that when he came back to himself, she was still there, and nothing had changed. Her eyes were still filled with that tenderness that touched him on the deepest levels of his soul. He hoped his bride would look at him this way. And he hoped she would always look at him that way too.

"You seem distracted…what thoughts have you so listless" said Vanessa, her voice like pure white silk as it touched him. As she spoke her eyes still never left him. They never strayed, but stayed strictly on him, touching him, lingering on him in the close confines of the darkness. Caliban enjoyed that as he peered with a kind of devotion back at her.

Somehow, they coaxed him closer, a vivid connection linking them that neither of them quite understood.

"Dr. Frankenstein told you everything…about how I came to be…about the woman he is creating to stand by my side. I was thinking of her. Of our future…I worry sometimes that things won't go as I want. That she won't love me but see me as the rest of the world does. I'd like her to see me as you do, but I don't know if that's possible" exclaimed Caliban, his eyes finally straying from hers to the snow as it pooled at their feet. He couldn't look at her as his deepest of fears fell from his lips. In the silence, his eyes seemed to ponder the snow, and Vanessa knew he was waiting. He wanted her response before he could dare look at her again, but Vanessa didn't say a thing. First, she needed him to look at her again, and see the genuine feeling she held for him in her eyes. It felt like forever as his eyes refused to meet hers again. She waited, as his eyes peered into the white mystical flakes until she could take it no more. When her hand dared reach out to touch him again, it had its desired effect. Caliban looked at her immediately as her hand touched the face others scorned melting any emotion that had been there before. As one hand touched his face, the other grabbed his hand, holding onto it. She didn't let go and neither did he. They stayed locked in a type of deadlock as they looked at each other like before. With a steady resolve that seemed to exist solely between the two of them. It made the distress which had colored his features before completely disappear.

"What on earth do you mean?" whispered Vanessa, making him look at her, and refusing to let him look anywhere else.

"The whole world looks at me with nothing, but hatred. How do I know she won't see me as the hideous figure that sits before you too" exclaimed Caliban, before Vanessa let go of his hand to hold his face in both her hands?

"Never say such things. You are not hideous, nor have you ever been. You are extraordinary, you must stop seeing yourself the way others do, and see what I do" whispered Vanessa, her face almost nose to nose with his now. Vanessa looked into his eyes and she found she couldn't speak anymore. It was mesmerizing, the emotions that filled her were something unknown, and Vanessa didn't know what to make of it. It made her wish they had met in another time. In another place and as she looked at him, she thought for a moment that they had, but shook it away as she continued to look at him with eyes more kind then he had ever known. Then he might have been hers, but as soon as the thought entered her mind, it left. Because Vanessa knew that wasn't meant to be as she pictured the bride Victor would make. That was who he wanted and with that thought in her mind, she focused her eyes on his once more. Because things would never be any different between them. For he would never be hers.

"He deserves better than the life your darkness will bring him" thought Vanessa, her eyes intent on his as neither of them moved.

"Whoever your bride may turn out to be, she will love you the way you deserve to be loved. She will see you as I do. You, Caliban, are a beautiful man…you will have a beautiful woman to be by your side, and she will love you. She will know that she is a lucky woman to have a man such as you are by her side" exclaimed Vanessa, her voice sincere part of her quivering with emotion at the thought that she would not be that woman. Silence fell as they stared at each other, stuck just like that until in one motion, they moved. Suddenly, neither of them felt the cold or the snow as if drifted around them. They felt a heated sensation that seemed to exist solely between the two of them. They were each lost to their own thoughts, Vanessa's were solely on his lips, and his were solely on her. On wanting to have her for his own even as he knew that wouldn't ever be a reality. On wanting to kiss him just once before he belonged to another. Vanessa was so lost in those thoughts that she didn't realize when her body did what her mind kept envisioning. Slowly, her lips moved, and before she could stop herself, they were touching his. They were blinded by something beyond their imagination as she held his face firmly in her hands. In the heat of the moment, Caliban was unsure of himself as he experienced her kiss.

This was his first kiss. One more then a peck on the lips, but something that existed purely between a man and woman. Something that existed in the love stories he read so vividly. Those thoughts soon fell away though as the kiss progressed and he found he was lost solely to the kiss itself. To her warm lips as the moved over his cold ones. To the smooth texture of those lips and the way they melded against his as if that was what they were meant for. His movements were always unsure, so uncertain, but any thought of that fell away too. Those thoughts were quickly replaced by something that pooled in the center of his chest. A heat he hadn't experienced before that he suddenly couldn't imagine living without. As unexpected as the moment was, Caliban wanted it the second it had begun even as he didn't know what to do.

"I…that wasn't…that was unexpected" gasped Vanessa when her lips finally parted from his, looking at him for some type of anger, but seeing the opposite.

"Caliban?" whispered Vanessa, her voice cautious. When he didn't say anything in response, she didn't move or even appear to breath.

She was just waiting.

"Should we come out of the snow…are you terribly angry?" whispered Vanessa, worried that she had ruined what she considered her closest relationship, but Caliban didn't say anything in response, he didn't even feel the snow as he sat there with her, barely hearing the words as she said them. He just kept looking at her, focusing on her lips, on the way they looked. Before they had been perfectly red, not a hint of the lipstick she wore out of place, but the same could not be said now. She was smudged. Her lips kissed to a cherry perfection. It stirred something unknown inside of him as he marveled at those lips and the way they looked in that moment. They looked ready to be kissed again and again and Caliban found he wouldn't mind being the one kissing her again. He found he craved it as he stared at the temptation that was her lips. He wanted to kiss her again. To take her lips and worship them the way they deserved. To surprise her the way she had him. He just didn't know if he should as he looked at her, unsure where to begin or how. She had simply been looking at him one moment then kissing him the next. Was that all it took? He didn't know but wanted to find out the longer he stared.

He was new to this. His head told him to simply appreciate that she had kissed him at all while his heart told him to do it again. To kiss her. To take her by surprise the way she had him, but he didn't know who to listen to. In the end, he followed that red beating organ that lay pounding in his chest now. Caliban felt as if he needed to be bold. To take a chance, so he did.

"Say something" exclaimed Vanessa in that moment her own fears clear in the sound of her voice. In the way she looked, her eyes peering like a child's up into his, and he saw not the fear he knew. This fear was more of herself. A fear that asked what was going to happen now. He gave her an answer in that moment. He engulfed her words before she could say more. Caliban decided to be bold. To be like the rest of the world and do what he wanted to do. And he wanted to kiss Vanessa Ives, so that's what he did.

He kissed her fully on the lips, feeling as her hands left his face only to settle almost content around his neck. This was the second kiss he'd ever had. The first taking place mere minutes before yet he moved his lips tenderly over hers. He didn't think about stopping, neither did she, they only sat among the chilled tears that only winter could shed refusing to feel its usual tingle. Because somehow this felt right causing neither of them to care if it was or not.


	5. What Is Possible?

Chapter 5

Caliban didn't return to the house with Vanessa. She returned alone. After he abruptly ended their kiss, he had left her sitting there as the snow fell all around her, and as she watched him go Vanessa couldn't say she knew how to feel. As she watched him walk away, she found she was worried for him as he disappeared into the night, and that worry stayed with her as she returned to her home alone. Meanwhile, Caliban was very aware of what he had done as he walked the streets afterward. Caliban had left Vanessa sitting there with snow in her hair. It had all happened so fast. He remembered that one moment he was kissing her then the next walking swiftly away. His mouth had covered hers as if he had been drinking her very soul. He had enjoyed kissing her, reveled in it even, but then something had come upon him. The image of his bride rising from the water had flashed in his mind, Ms. Ives still wore her image, and that was when he stopped. His mind was racing, and he found he didn't know what to do. So, he did the only thing he knew. He rose from that bench and walked away from her feeling her eyes on him as he walked briskly away.

"Caliban" he thought as he walked with the breeze on his shoulders unsure if he wanted her to call after him as he did, but she hadn't choosing to let him leave to clear whatever frantic thought had made him run from her. He knew he shouldn't have initiated the kiss even as he savored the memory.

"Her lips were so soft" thought Caliban as he walked through London those images of his bride and Ms. Ives mingling to become one with the dream that he worried had created the entire notion in his mind. Because what he had said was true. He feared that though she would be made solely for the purpose of loving him, Caliban was unsure if she could feel that way, but he longed for it all the same.

"What if she sees me just like the rest of the world" thought Caliban when he found himself in Dr. Frankenstein's workroom watching her as the doctor's back was turned. His bride was there, laying in the water where she was last, and yet when he looked down at her, he still saw Vanessa's face.

"I told you this would take time. There is still work to be done" said Victor, he turned to look at him, but Caliban didn't say anything in reply. He kept looking at her and seeing Vanessa even as he tried to see her. He tried to tell himself that would end when she came to life, but he worried that his heart was betraying him. That he was falling in love with a woman who wouldn't love him back like with the actress before. Yet as he looked at her, taking slow steps towards her, Caliban didn't voice his concerns, but only continued to look at her. He didn't know how to prevent what was happening as he looked down into the water with Victor standing behind him now.

"I didn't come with any demands…I just wanted to see her. I can't stop thinking of her" said Caliban his voice soft. He turned to look at the doctor as he spoke, yet he found he couldn't look at the man. His eyes found his hands as he rung them in his state of confusion. When he looked into the doctor's eyes finally there was something there and Caliban suddenly felt as if he was seeing something. As if he knew what had happened, but he knew that was impossible as he held his gaze. Victor was standing close to him suddenly and Caliban didn't know what to expect from him as he seemed to look at her too. The man had made himself a god and yet, Caliban had never feared him the way a real god might be feared, but in that moment for unknown reasons, Caliban was on guard. He didn't know what had happened between Ms. Ives and himself and until he did, he didn't want the doctor to know. For that reason, he looked for a reason to stay there in that moment. The next words to leave him were not planned, but they seemed to slip out of his heart as it lay still yet torn in his chest.

"I don't know what I want anymore" thought Caliban looking at the woman meant to be his bride and wanting her still to be Ms. Vanessa Ives.

Yet, she would not be, could not be, and in a wistful moment the words slipped forth.

"I want her to have a better introduction to the world then I had. I want her to know how to act in it and not be left to find her place in it on her own. I want her to know things and have things shown to her. To know the ways of women and the things women should know" whispered Caliban receiving a laugh as the doctor walked around the tank where she lay.

"Who do you expect to teach her these things? I am most certainly not equipped, and neither are you. Women's ways are not part of our knowledge" exclaimed Victor laughter still in his voice. When he hit his fist against the tub where she lay, his tone changed, and Caliban recognized the fear that ran across his face. He hadn't come here to fight. He hadn't planned on coming there at all, but somehow his feet had led him there. Caliban wouldn't back down for this man though as he stared him down in that moment. He had spent far too much time being mocked and he wasn't going to anymore. He felt the man in him slinking away in that moment as the monster that he could have easily been tried to fight his way to the surface. He stomped him back down though as he stared his creator down with an ire he didn't want to feel in that moment. He stamped it down though as he eyed his creator.

"No, you are not qualified, neither am I. I thought Ms. Ives could do it actually. She is a woman of great culture, great poise, and beautiful. She would learn much from her" whispered Caliban, watching his bride now. When he looked at the doctor once more his stare was strange. An accusing stare that Caliban found the need to run from as he turned to leave. He didn't realize what he'd said until he was in front of her home again. As he stood before the door, Caliban didn't know how to ask this of her especially after what had just happened between them, but as he went inside, he decided he must ask. If he was to stay with her, he had to look into her eyes again, and this time do it without kissing her.


End file.
